


Dead on Arrival

by dont_need_me



Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Afterlife, Ghosts, M/M, Mystery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-09
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-08-13 23:41:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,871
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20182648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dont_need_me/pseuds/dont_need_me
Summary: (This is a 'write for 20 minutes a day' story. Every day I'll post 20 minutes worth of work.)Tony's in a place that isn't really a place. It doesn't always make sense, but there are rules, and peace and the sky is always beautiful. He's not alone, he's got his mother. He's got Natasha and Jarvis. He's happy. Until the last person he wanted to see shows up. Suddenly, Tony has a mission. Uncovering the truth.





	1. Chapter 1

Tony was in a place. That was the first thing that struck him when he opened his eyes. No inky blackness, no hellfire. He was in a field. The grass was tall, the soft breeze barely disturbed it and wafted along something strong and floral. The sky was so bright and blue he had to squint his eyes to look at it. Tony lay there on his back in that field for a very long time. He’d been stunned. Where was he? What had happened to him after the snap? He felt fine. Better than he had in years. The thought bothered him. 

“Anthony?”

Tony sat upright so quickly he nearly lost his balance. He looked around wildly for the sound of the voice. It couldn’t be who he thought it was. 

But it was. 

“Oh, look at you.” Maria Stark rushed over to him, slinging a bag off her shoulders and taking his face in her hands. There were tears in her eyes, but she was smiling. 

Tony couldn’t speak. When he tried all that came out was a shuddering sob. It had been so long since he’d seen her. God, how he missed her. He saw a lot of her in Morgan. Every day she got older and every day Tony wished she had been alive to see that he’d done some good with his like. 

“Dear, dear.” Maria murmured, wiping her sons tears. “I’ve missed you.” 

Tony held her at arms length to look at her. She wasn’t much different than the last time he saw her. Only she was wearing a soft white cotton skirt and a soft yellow blouse, embroidered with sunflowers. It took Tony a moment to realize he recognized that shirt. It was a distant memory...a day on the beach, the waves had been big...

“Where am I right now? Why are _you_ here right now, jesus...” Tony trailed off as he watched his mother open the bag she’d brought and pull out a set of clothes. 

“We’ll talk about it. Take these. Get out of those death clothes.”

He looked down at himself for the first time. He was still dressed in singed, bloody clothes. He was starting to become confused. This was proof. What happened had happened. So where was he? Why couldn’t he get an immediate answer from his mother? 

Maria walked some paced away and turned her back to him. Tony changed quickly. It was odd to see smooth, unmarred skin under the charred clothes. He pulled on the simple t shirt and jeans and folded the clothes he’d been wearing. He had the odd urge to keep them. 

“Are you finished?” His mother called. 

“Yeah, I’m finished!” he said, walking after her feeling lighter than air. 

\--

It had been a long time since that day. In that time, Tony had gotten to know his mother. He’d gotten to know the rules of the place he found himself in. There was no one name for it in particular, most people just called it home. Tony estimated there had to be millions of people around, in their own little Corners. People didn’t cross paths often. The only place to meet outside of their personal Corners was the field people arrive in. It was unlawful to enter a Corner of another person unless invited. 

So when Natasha comes banging into the house he’d long since built for himself he’s surprised. The shock of the sudden noise made him jump and drop his coffee mug. It shattered, splattering coffee everywhere. Natasha was out of breath, her hair was soaked, she looked like she’d been running for a long time.

“Jesus Nat, what the hell is wro-” 

“The field-” 

“You can’t just burst into someone’s place like that-” 

“Tony you have to go to the field now, we have to go right now I’ll explain-” 

“Honestly Nat I know you know it’s against code-” 

Natasha grabbed Tony by the collar of his shirt and hauled him with her to the front door. 

“Get your shoes, we have to go to the field.” Natasha said. She sounded desperate. Nat, even after all this time, wasn’t a person who could be read. She kept a stone face at all times, but now? The stone was broken, she looked close to tears, and that made Tony afraid. So he put on his shoes, and he and Natasha set out. 

They half jogged in silence for a long time. Natasha looked like she was thinking hard. Tony couldn’t handle the silence anymore. 

“What’s going on? Why’re you wet? You were at The lake again weren’t you?” he asked accusingly. The Lake was a bad place to be. Addicting. It drove people crazy. 

“Doesn’t matter where I was. Walk faster.” Natasha said, practically breaking into a run. Tony trotted after her. 

“Nat you’re really starting to scare me-” 

“I’m not trying to scare you, alright? I just...I don’t want to have to be the person who tells you this.” She said carefully. She cleared her throat. “Morgan’s there.”


	2. Chapter 2

Morgan was very confused. She was looking up at a bright blue cloud filled sky. One of the clouds looked like a fluffy white cat, which was sort of funny until she realized this was not the place she fell asleep in. She'd fallen asleep somewhere dark and damp. It smelled like wet rock and the walls made a sound like breathing. The floor was cold and wet and lined with tiny, pointy rocks.It was a bad place to be. She doesn't remember why she was there, as there was no way her Pops would even let her out of his sight. 

Morgan sat up, a worry settling into her gut. She slowly stood and looked down at herself. She was still in her pajamas. The purple ones with the flowers on them. They were dirty and bloody from when she's fallen down and scraped her knees and palms, but when she wiggled her finger into the hole all she felt was a normal knee. NO scrapes. Upon careful scrutiny, the scrapes on her palms were all gone too. Was the cave real? Morgan stood up, barely able to see over the tall grass on her tip toes. She couldn't see anybody or any thing for as far as she could see. Just the tall yellow grass, white flowers and trees offering sparse spots of shade. 

"Pops?" She called worriedly, voice wavering. Something in her told her he wasn't there. She decided she wasn't going to call for him again. She was a big girl now. Six years old. She was good at figuring out how to get out of trouble. 

After some time, and some time distracted by a grasshopper, Morgan decided she should climb a tree. She'd be able to see everything from there, so she set off all the way across the field to the tallest tree she could see. 

About halfway there, she sees something. There's people running in her field. She drops down on her knees so she's completely hidden by the grass. What if they're bad people? 

"Morgan!" 

Morgan gasped. They were calling her name. She didn't know what to do! Does she run away? 

"Morgan!" 

The voice was so familiar. She can't remember where she heard it last. 

"Morgan!" 

It was getting closer. Morgan stood up slowly, too scared and intrigued to move. 

* * *

Tony doesn’t remember the mad dash to the field. His mind only checks back in once he’s actually there. He can’t see her. Had she gone in the mere minutes it’d taken them to get there? He calls her name, and nothing happens. Some birds take off from a random tree. The wind blows. Tony looks back at Natasha, who nods to Tony's three o' clock. A little head peeps above the grass. Tony feel weak in the knees as he walks slowly in her direction, despite his every last urge being to run. He approaches her carefully, remembering his own disorientation on arrival. 

"Morgan?" he called softly, stoping several feet away from her. He still could hardly see her, part of him was terrified too. Terrified to see what she might look like, to know what had brought her to him so soon. His thoughts fell to Steve a moment, wondering if he knew where their little girl was. 

“Daddy?” Morgan said, looking genuinely confused. She stared at him for a very long time. Tony could see the cogs turning in her head. It tilted to the side as she studied him. And then she smiled. There were gaps in her teeth. She was so big. Emotion tore at Tony like a hungry dog. He was happy to see her. He was happy to hold her when she launched herself into his his arms, but if she was here with him that meant she was for very certain-

Tony wasn’t ready to think about it all yet. For now, she was there with him, and she was happy and falling back to sleep in his arms as he walked her out of the field.

Tony couldn’t pretend like he didn’t see Natasha creeping back to the lake, and he worried for her, but hoped she might try to find something out. She'd probably know by nightfall. 

Not for the first time he considered going to the lake himself.

For now, he rearranged Morgan on his shoulder as he walked her away from the field and into the house he'd built, now for them. 


	3. Chapter 3

"You don't know how it happened?" Maria asked, her voice hushed. Tony had nearly not gone to get her, afraid that Morgan might wake up to find him missing, but she was the only one he could really get advice from. 

"I don't. I haven't asked. She's already confused enough, I don't want to make it worse." Tony said, looking down at Morgan where she slept on the couch. 

"It's hard, seeing your child here." Maria said into the silence of the room. Tony had been caught up in Morgan's face, in the ways it'd changed and the ways it'd stayed the same. He looked up at his mother, eyes misty. 

"I'm disgusted with myself." He said finally, looking back down at Morgan. "I'm so happy to see her. To hold her again." Tony cleared his throat and walked away from the couch to look out the window.The sun was going down. The sky was a fiery orange. They'd gotten through a lot of emotional baggage, he and his mother. The thought of searching for comfort in her was still somewhat daunting. What if he didn't find it? What would happen then? 

"Don't. Don't do that to yourself. She's here. There's nothing that can be done to change that, now all you have to do is take care of her until she's old enough to make her own decisions." Maria said, looking down at her granddaughter fondly. "I just love her name. Morgan. So regal. Of corse I went to the lake to watch her birth." 

The statement made Tony pause. 

"You've been to the lake?" Tony pressed gently. Natasha wouldn't talk about it. She liked to deny she even went most of the time. Most of the information he had on the place was through hear say. Information didn't travel easily when people mostly kept to themselves. 

"Yes, darling. I use it for special occasions. That's what it's there for." 

Tony smiled. He remembered holding Morgan the day she was born, Steve looking over his shoulder. They were a pair of speechless fools. Tony hadn't been able to process the squirmy little girl in his arms, she was too perfect. What he had been able to process though, was the overwhelming sense of his mother. He'd nearly been able to smell her perfume, it was so strong. As a man of science, he'd written it off as a manifestation of his wish for her to be there and moved on. 

If only he knew then what he knew now. 

"Anthony, come back to the present dear, there's only so much time in a day." Maria said airily. 

"I was thinking about going down." Tony said quickly. Maria, who'd been gathering her things, paused. "I just need to see what happened to her." He said quickly. Maria didn't look convinced. 

"Be careful." is all she said. Tony could tell she wanted to say more, but she didn't. "Ring me when the little one wakes up." 

* * *

It was midnight when Natasha showed up. She looked waterlogged and tired, and was standing in a small puddle on his front step. 

"They thinks she's missing." Was the first thing out of her mouth. "They've been looking for her for two weeks, there aren't any suspects, and the usual suspects all have solid alibis." She walked past him into the house. Tony motioned for her to keep her voice down, pointing to a still sleeping Morgan on the couch.

After finding Natasha a towel, he ushered her into he kitchen and shut the door quietly. 

"How's Steve?" Tony asked. Nat grimaced and shook her head. "About as well as you'd expect. He's killing himself looking for her, Tony. I don't even think he sleeps anymore."

Tony nodded wordlessly, mind made up.

"That's it then, I'm going to go down there." Tony muttered, thinking out loud. 

"You're not thinking about making contact..." Natasha started, biting her lip worriedly. 

"Is this really happening right now? Am I really getting this from _you_?" Tony asked, annoyed. Natasha put her hands up defensively. 

"Don't give me that. I observe more than one should, that's true, but I don't make contact, I don't _haunt-" _

"I'm not going to _haunt, _him, Natasha-" Tony snapped. "I'm just going to tell him Morgan's-"

"Daddy?" Morgan's voice quivered. She wobbled as she walked to him, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "I had a dream about the bad men." She said, sniffling as Tony picked her up. 

"Bad men?" Natasha asked. Morgan nodded. 

"We were at the mall. They took me with them." A small shudder ran through Morgan's body, Tony tightened his hold on her and looked at Natasha over her head. 

"I have to go, Nat. It's the right thing to do." 

Natasha scoffed. 

"It breaks every rule in the book." She said carefully. "Observation is one thing, contact is another." 

Tony shifted Morgan in his arms.

"I know." he said, chewing the inside of his cheek as he thought. "I just don't see another way." 


	4. Chapter 4

“It’s okay, I got ya,” Tony said, holding a crying Morgan in his arms. It’s been three days, and she was still dreaming about the ‘bad men’. Tony decided he was going to get to the bottom of it once and for all. He remembered how slowly things had come back to him, mostly in dreams. He remembered his own terror, and his heart aced for her.

“You gotta talk to me about it. Tell me what happens.” Tony said quietly, sitting Morgan down on the kitchen table, fishing in the freezer for an ice pop. He found one. He always found what he was looking for when he looked for it, an odd property of the place they now found themselves in together. Morgan accepted it without a smile. The little girl just looked tired in a way no child had the right to.

"We were going to go on the Carousel." Morgan starts slowly, but she's too distracted by the ice pop. Tony almost wishes he hadn't given it to her.

"Did you?" he asks, probing gently, leaning against the kitchen table next to her. 

"Yeah." she says simply, shrugging he shoulder. "I went around and then I didn't see Pops anymore. And then a man said he was gonna take me to him but-" Her eyes welled up with tears and her little lip quivered and Tony's heart broke. He scooped her up into a hug. She didn't cry, she just leaned into him and closed her eyes. The ice pop was dripping on his shirt but he didn't mind. 

"Daddy? Where are we?" 

Boom. The big question. Tony thought he'd have just a little more time before she asked. She was still young after all. Then again it wasn't like there was a book on how to do this, no handbook of the recently deceased. 

"We're in another place." Tony said, after a long moment of silence. 

"Where's Pops?" She asked. "Can he come here?" 

"No," Tony said too quickly, Morgan looked a little taken aback, Tony set her back down on the table. "No. He's not going to come here, he's back home." 

"So this isn't home?" Morgan asked, confused. Tony cursed himself. 

"no, it's not that-" 

_ knock knock knock  _

Saved by the bell. Well. Knock. Hopefully Morgan might forget that he didn't have the answers for now with Natasha as a distraction, despite her lateness. Morgan hopped down from the table to open the door. 

"You're all wet!" She said in stern greeting. "Wet clothes mean a stuffy nose," Morgan said, wagging her finger, hand on her him. 

"She sounds like Steve." Natasha said, unamused. 

"Yeah, she does." Tony said, awestruck. 


End file.
